Measuring the “Telling” in the Selling of the StoryClassifying Instagram Imagery for Internal Benchmarks

Dr Stephen DannSenior LecturerAustralian National University

Instagram: The Whole Box and Dice

Bypassing the usual suspects…

Likes | Comments | Shares | Followers

What was the story we told?

Does it match what we intended to say?

Content analysis for the masses

If a picture paints a thousand words… do #corporate #selfies amount to much?Instagram is a storytelling platform that sells the brand, tells the story, and connects the customer…

Visual prompts for audience “ah” and “aha!” moments

It’s all about the connection from the content… so how do we demonstrate the content is going according to plan?

Time to assist the creatives

Social media is accountable to…

Management.

Brand strategy.

Corporate goals.

Measure the story as told

Not as foretold The medium is the message, and the message is often medium – neither rare,

nor well done- with apologies to Ernie Kovacs

All the world’s an instagram page…

The Promotion Plan Implementation?

We know how to tell a story

The Backstory

First, assume that we have a strategy

Second, assume we’re privy to that strategy

Third, measure outcomes against intention

Fourth, what got done gets measured.

And it goes a little something like this…

1. Capture Instagram timeline

2. Preparation

3. Replication ft Field Work

4. Quantifications

Sensible shoes and fully charged accessories are key to mystery shopping data collections

Capture

Capture your timeline with Save-o-gram

Print to PDF from Save-o-gram

Print “Multiple”

“9/16/25 images a page”

Congrats! You’ve got a code book

From this…

To this…

Grab that Timeline!

Supermetrics (www.supermetrics.com)

Paid service ($).

Does the job.

Captions, links, filters and more

Preparation

Potential Promise

Any image that looks attainable

Not Promise

Clearly sold separately

Actual

Any regrammed or repost.(It’s hardly unattainable if someone’s already done it)

Replication

This is where we break out the mystery shopper methodology

• Boots on the ground

• iPhone in hand

• iPad / code book in other hand

Test to see if photos are attainable, feasible, or require backstage access

Field Capture

Hamleysofficial Hamleysofficial

Field Capture

Quantifications

Pre Coding

Regrammed

Out of Camera

Post Coding (Realism Frame)

Realism : Photo we could take

Broken Promise: Photo that was impossible

Aspirational: The Living Dream

From the field workFour clear message positions

(derived from three theme parks, twelve arcade stores, six shopping chains, two market stalls, and one airlines across five countries, two islands and three

continents…)  Performance

In-Camera Prepared

Earlier

Promise

Attainable Realism Regrammed

Unattainable Aspirational Advertorial

All four are equal in valueNo content approach is superior on inherent merit.

They’re all equally bad if they’re not measureable or aligned with goals

Type 1: Aspirational (Intentionally Unattainable)

Demonstrably staged

A reflection of “what could be”

behind the Scenes

idealised settings

Does the caption support the unreality?

Type 2: Advertorial

Advertorial:

• created outside of the camera

• eg adverts,

• Brand marks

• non-photo content

Type 3 Regrammed :

An image taken by a fellow user and regrammed

• The perfect reflection of reality

• Shows the “as is” side

• Could be a terrible idea for the referent brand selling the unattainable heights

Does the caption acknowledge the original photographer?

Type 4: Realism

Any image that could feasibly be taken by a consumer

• Field Test Materials

• Identical

• Next Nearest

Does the caption encourage and support pursuit of the type of photo?

Field Test

Instagram

Mistyped: Broken Promise

It’s moment when you miss the audience

• Unintentionally Unavailable

• Over promise

• Looks reasonable, proves unrealistic

• Doesn’t have to be a deal breaker

• Does induce subtle doubts

Quantify: Measurement reality and back again

Regrammed Realism Broken Promise Aspirational Advertorial

Representing Data

Type N count Percent Normalised

Regrammed 23 11% 0.18

Realism 128 59% 1.00

Broken Promise 14 6% 0.11

Aspirational 32 15% 0.25

Advertorial 21 10% 0.16

218

Regrammed

Realism

Broken PromiseAspirational

Advertorial

It makes for a lovely time series with event interval coding

Closing Remarks

Why do we need it?

• Quantify the story telling

• N of Promises Made, N+1 Promises Kept?

Measuring the “Telling” in the Selling of the StoryClassifying Instagram Imagery for Internal Benchmarks

Dr Stephen DannSenior LecturerAustralian National University